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Pitch

The rocket stove design is arguably the most environmentally sound. Insulating ceramic rocket stoves can be mass produced almost anywhere.


Description

Summary

Throughout much of the developing world there are long traditions involving clay workers, who typically produce such products as construction brick and water storage containers. While these rural ceramists tend to be on the lookout for new products, insulating ceramic rocket stoves are ideal.

While more information can be found at,https://tzenvirohealth.wixsite.com/ceramics... briefly put, Do-it-yourself insulating ceramic rocket stoves, mass produced, address many pressing needs. 

To begin with is SDG 3. Good health and well being.  The ladies who typically do the cooking will not experience a worsening of their respiratory illnesses, as a result of smoke and fumes around cook stoves.  Here, SDG 5. Gender Equality is an issue.

Further, while insulating ceramic rocket stoves burn sticks of wood or bio-mass, there is no need for the preferred fuel,  charcoal, which is expensive. Note SDG 7. Affordable and clean energy.

SDG 13. Climate Action is addressed squarely, while there will be no further need for charcoal. Note that production of charcoal requires ten times its weight in wood, with a consequence that vast areas of land are de-forested.

Fortuitously, SDG 17. Partnership for the Goals involves clay workers, almost anywhere, along with community members. Clay workers will produce the special bricks of the stoves, while community members will fabricate these.

Note a feature of the stoves that these involve uniquely techniques of mass production. The clay workers, along with others involved will familiarize there neighbors with the urgent need for clean cook stoves, a win win situation for all!


Proposals

1. Exploring Synergistic Solutions for Sustainable Development

2. Absorbing Climate Impacts.

3. Shifting Attitudes and Behaviors

4. Land Use: Agriculture, Forestry, Waste Management


What actions do you propose?

As in the summary above, numerous SDGs are addressed squarely in this proposal. That these goals will be accomplished primarily by community members, starting with rural clay workers, the synergy will be most apparent as regards the good health of those who do household cooking as well as the wellbeing of the environment. I.e. as a result of acceptance of this proposal and application, far fewer trees will be cut down for the production of charcoal.

SDG 8 is also important: Decent Work and Economic Growth. Those with new work will be the clay workers, the community members who fabricate the stoves, those who collect bio-mass (or sticks of wood) as fuel, those who sell the stoves and those who familiarize their neighbors with the urgent need of these.

Note that hose who familiarize their neighbors will also need importantly, to stress the requirement of good ventilation around the stoves. While as a result of these environmentally responsible stoves there will be no smoke around them, there will indeed be carbon monoxide. To avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, those who cook must situate their stoves in well ventilated areas.

While the real challenge is bound to be in the building of such awareness, this will arguably be addressed by the involvement of so many in the community, who work together cooperatively. By the same token, a long period of monitoring and evaluation - M&E - will be needed, at all levels.

There is a problem in development, in general, that those who initiate projects from the outside do not account for M & E over time, sufficient to better guarantee prolonged application. Additional partners will be sought among international and national NGOs, who can better guarantee monitoring and evaluation in the long run.

About goals that might be de-emphasized as a result of this proposal, one will be the displacement of those who cut trees for charcoal, produce this and sell it. This problem may be addressed by reaching out in a deliberate way, to those displaced, with a view to their integration into work with the improved stoves.

About the Climate Colab topics that are squarely addressed in the proposal, these include:

1. Exploring Synergistic Solutions for Sustainable Development

2. Absorbing Climate Impacts.

3. Shifting Attitudes and Behaviors

4. Land Use: Agriculture, Forestry, Waste Management


Who will take these actions and which types of actors are involved?

1) The Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves, in which several of those involved have been members.

Of the countries listed below, involvement/approval will be proactively encouraged through

2) Ministries of Health

3) Ministries related to the environment

4) Those related to work and employment

5) NGOs, national and international

6) As to business involvement, rural entrepreneurship will be encouraged

7) The proposal authors will look for an exit strategy from the very beginning, bearing in mind the responsibility over time to give support and encouragement.


Where will these actions be taken and how could they scale?

In all case, the actions will take place in rural communities, starting with those having the common tradition of clay work. In order to support the various work roles as described above, such communities should have hundreds of residents.

Note that such projects with the stoves will be widely applicable in any of the countries listed in the next section. Scale up to surrounding communities will be similarly possible, starting with those communities having clay workers.


In addition, specify the countries where these actions will be taken.

Tanzania


Country 2

Liberia


Country 3

Kenya


Country 4

Nepal


Country 5

Haiti


Impact/Benefits:


What impact will these actions have on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and/or adapting to climate change?

While the insulating ceramic stove of the proposal has not been tested for energy efficiency, it's readily arguable that this should not be necessary.  The fact that the stove gives no smoke, as is the case with all true rocket stoves, is evidence in itself of optimal energy efficiency.

Smoke is simply unburned fuel. Because of the shape of the combustion chamber, as well as the narrow venting of heat and fumes around the cook pot, the smoke is burned up.  Again, the rocket stove design is unique in this respect, that bio-mass can be burned without smoke.

While the rocket stove design was introduced by the U. S. NGO, Aprovecho, the insulating rocket stove of this proposal simply made the design sustainable and widely replicable. Because of this, the benefit of smokeless cooking at low cost can be enjoyed by all.


What are the most innovative aspects and main strengths of this approach?

While much good work has been done involving communities in production of rocket stoves, those of this proposal are fabricated through techniques of ceramic mass production. This involves the use of molds for the special bricks implicit to the stoves, as shown at the website:https://tzenvirohealth.wixsite.com/ceramics

Such mass production techniques suggest for example, that the job of the clay workers might only be to dig and process the clay, mold the special bricks, dry and fire them. Subsequently, community members can follow the simple techniques of fabrication of the stoves.

Also addressed is a solution for the one disadvantage of the rocket stove design, that a given stove allows for a cook pot of one diameter only, By using the master molds, shown at the website, stoves can be readily fabricated for cook pots of whatever diameter.

The mass production techniques will allow for a proliferation of such stove projects.  Reproduction of the master molds will make this possible.


Costs/Challenges:


What are the proposal’s projected costs?

Off hand, in a community of say 1,000 people, beginning implementation should cost no more than about $20,000.  This should bring about no less than fifty jobs, in the above mentioned areas, with enough of these optimized stoves for the entire community.

The most apparent trade off is that mentioned above, displacing those who work with charcoal production and sale. Those selling other kinds of stove may also feel the competition, though communities of implementation may be chosen in such a way as not to threaten the good work of others.


About the Authors

As regards the stove program of the above URL, for the project Tanzania Environmental Health,https://tzenvirohealth.wixsite.com/ceramics... this was undertaken in December 2016, in the far west of Tanzania, town of Kibondo. The local director of the project was the Anglican priest, Fr. Bartholomew Segu, who would happily host a further phase of the same.

About the stove of the picture at the top of this application, 'Insulating Ceramic Rocket Stove in Use,' this was fabricated in the pottery of the Eastleigh Community Centre - ECC, Nairobi, Kenya,http://pceaecc.or.ke ...ECC management has also expressed an interest in fostering such projects.


References

1) Indicated at the partnership directory of the Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves,http://cleancookstoves.org is the Tanzanian Foundation SUPETA, as in this link: http://cleancookstoves.org/partners/directory.html?q=supeta  Note that SUPETA's director is Fr. Bartholomew Segu, as mentioned above, who directed the project of December 2016:https://tzenvirohealth.wixsite.com/ceramics

2) While the NGO Aprovecho (URL) introduced the rocket stove design, their document of this link describes basic of stove design:http://www.rocketstove.org/images/stories/design-principles-for-wood-burning-cook-stoves.pdf

(Note that while a lot of wonderful work has been done on stoves, by Aprovecho and others, the insulating rocket stove of this proposal simply articulates techniques of mass production.)

3) The U.K. NGO Practical Action supports a rocket stove (though not described as such: https://practicalaction.org/improved-cooking-stoves

At this site, photo number 6 shows a pot holder, part way down the interior of the stove, and this indicates that it's a rocket stove. The top-view drawing of the page shows a dashed line, indicating how it is that the pot fits inside with a gap around it. While no side view drawing is shown, this would also indicate that the pot fits down inside.

4) In 2011 USAID paid most of the expenses related to presentation of the poster of the following link, at the conference of the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3E-qEW1tsGmczhXVlFJNVlIQ1V5WXhRWkdRSmlWcEJMamw4/view?usp=sharing

While at this conference, I was told by the representative of the organizing NGO, 'FHI 360,' Julia Rosenbaum, that the insulating ceramic rocket stove of the poster (per the link) was their number one choice. (Note that there is no documentation to this effect.)


What enabling environment would be required in order to implement this proposal?